Monday, June 9, 2014

Pentecost Sunday 2014

On The Evening of Pentecost Sunday I travelled to The Parish of Gander Bay to join the people of Holy Trinity for Worship. It was a joy to share the Eucharist with them, and to deliver the sermon on Pentecost Sunday.The Podcast Link is here

Whenever I
have taught about the Holy Spirit, or laid hands on a person who has asked for
some sort of Spiritual Blessing,

I have always wanted to get it right.

As I have
gotten a bit older and have gone through a lot of ups and downs, I have become
more and more of a realist in regard to life.

Life can
through some hard things at us.

Never mind
"can". It will, and it does.

Might I ask
you to think about your own challenges?

Another
thing that has happened to me as I have gotten older and have gone through a
lot of ups and downs, is that I have

1. Less
patience for religious platitudes and doctrines that allow us to say
"there there"...Your problem is that you are not doing this the right
way...or saying the right things.

I don't hear
that a lot from people who suffer.

2.
And...because I have experienced God's Grace(in my own circumstances) in a very deep way, I long to share that in a
way that is authentic and that is effective in the community around us.

The
Community around us ....

There was a
time when people came to the Church and said

Here I am.

I belong
because generations of my family belonged.

Give me the
rules

Give me the
Book

Tell me what
to do, and I will be a good Christian.

Today, that
is not the case.There has been a huge
shift in the way people see the Church and Christianity.

Outwardly,
sometimes I feel like people see the Church as a seller of Products such as
Marriage, Baptism, funerals...etc. In some cases I think people think of me as
an insurance salesman.

We all know
that the cultural connections that once brought people to Church are no longer
there.

It brings us
all face to face with the question that Church people must ask themselves:

Am I a
Cultural Christian OR am I a follower of Jesus, with a desire tobe like Him and do what He is leading us all
into atthis point of History?

Don't think
for one moment that the Church is going to die.

But do
believe that God is working ,and changing, and challenging.

The
institution is being challenged...Rather better to say the institution is being
ignored by the world.

The world we
live in contains a broad diversity in beliefs and practices, and has less
understanding and desireto engage
sacred rituals, good works, and political and social activism. Manypeople have been directed to think only of
themselves.

How then do
Christians hope to make a difference?

What is to
become of Christian Identity in the world today?

My prayer is
that the Church will be made up of people who have , a clear understanding of
what they believe, and why it is important to them, and intentionally share it
in an authentic way with others. To go from here, strengthened by worship, to
actually sincerely live the faith in a world that can recognize insincerity a
mile away.

I believe we
are on the verge of a great adventure in the Church.

Churches
that begin to take the mission seriously in this age of Science, Technology
andof people who have little time for
unrational explanations and lack of sincerity are going to fulfill God's plan,
and will be blessed.

Churches
that are inward and self serving cannot survive any longer.

They wont
survive.

If I might
make a strong statement: (I believe I am quoting Richard Rhor here)

God has grown accustomed to our small and
cowardly ways of waiting behind closed doors of fear and self-doubt. God knows
that we settle for easy certitudes instead of Gospel freedom, for a small god
instead of a Big Mystery. Yet God seems surely determined to break through.

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About Me

My Journey has taken me from Being the Rector of St. Martin's Cathedral in Gander, to becoming the Bishop of the Diocese of Central Newfoundland.
I have been serving this Diocese since 1990.
Husband of Karen,Father of Chanda,Elissa,Lacey and Ashton,and Grandfather of Joshua,Emma and Delilah, Zachaeus and Teghan.